Just Kids

(National Book Award winner) This incandescent memoir by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame poet Patti Smith well earned the 2010 National Book Award for nonfiction. It is a swift, moving portrait of her enduring relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, introduced with glimpses of her childhood and early inspirations and then picking up speed as she and Mapplethorpe fall easily together in 1967 Manhattan. They form an intense emotional and artistic partnership, first as lovers and then, after Mapplethorpe came to terms with his homosexuality, as best friends. Smith lyrically describes the New York art and music scenes in the 1960s and 70s; living with Mapplethorpe at the Hotel Chelsea; putting together the seminal rock band Patti Smith Group; and figures like Janis Joplin, William Burroughs, and Sam Shepard who drifted through their lives.

"A revelation. In a spellbinding memoir as notable for its restraint as for its lucidity, its wit as well as its grace, Smith tells the story of how she and Robert Mapplethorpe found each other, a true and abiding love that survived his coming out as gay, and the path to art in New York City during the heady late 1960s and early 1970s. Smith promised the controversial photographer that she would tell their story as he faced death in 1989 and then weathered more tragedies as she lost her husband and brother. Consequently, Smith brings the piercing clarity born of pain and renewal to this at once matter-of-fact and fairy tale–like chronicle of two romantics living hand-to-mouth as disciples to art."—Booklist (starred review)